Since their invention in the 1930s, the electric guitar has been a mainstay in music and has been instrumental in the development of rock and roll and many other genres of music due to its ability to create a variety of sounds and styles. The unique combination of parts coupled with electronic amplification allows the electric guitar to produce their unique sounds and styles. Generally, the electric guitar comprises a body, a neck, headstock, tuning pegs, fret board, frets, pickups, bridge, tailpiece, guitar strings, and strap button screws. The head stock is connected to the neck which is connected to the body, creating the general shape and structure of the guitar. The guitar strings are strung from the headstock, down the neck across the fret board towards the body, passing over the pickups and bridge as they terminate at the tailpiece. At the headstock, the tension of the guitar strings can be adjusted by turning the tuning pegs. The pickups detect the movement of the strings and converts and transmit the string movements into electric signals which is then amplified and turned into sound by an electronic amplifier. Each pluck of a guitar string representing a musical note.
Achieving a vibrato effect, a change in pitch of a musical note, has always been desirable in guitars ever since its invention. Before the invention of vibrato devices for guitars, guitarist achieved the vibrato effect by using their fingers and pressing down on the string against a fret on the fret board and wobbling their fingers back and forth. To produce a wider vibrato effect, instead of wobbling their fingers in one location, guitarist slid their fingers up and down the neck while simultaneously pressing down on the string against the frets on the fret board. Using these methods, guitarists were able to achieve the vibrato effect on only the strings they were able to hold down with their fingers. The introduction of vibrato devices allowed guitarist to create a vibrato effect on all of the strings simultaneously. The vibrato device produces a vibrato effect by changing the tension of all the guitar strings simultaneously using a single control lever, also known as a whammy or a vibrato bar.
An exemplary example of a vibrato device is the Bigsby® B3 vibrato device comprising of only a single string bar serving as a tension and hold bar. The Vibrato device includes a spring loaded control lever (whammy/vibrato bar) fixedly attached to a string hold bar, housed in a solid body for attachment to a guitar. The vibrato device is attached towards the rear, top surface of the guitar by replacing the bridge, the tailpiece, or both. The guitar strings are then attached to the string hold bar of the vibrato device instead of the original tailpiece of the guitar. When the control lever is pushed downwards, the string bar rotates towards the direction of the guitar strings, relieving tension and creating a low pitch. When the control lever is pulled upwards, the string bar rotates away creating additional tension in the guitar strings resulting in a higher pitch. Releasing the control lever to its natural position returns the strings back to its normal tension resulting in the guitars normal pitch.
However, secure attachment of a Bigsby® B3 vibrato device or similar type vibrato devices to a guitar requires permanent physical modifications to the guitar. The attachment of vibrato devices to guitars requires the removal of the tailpiece, possible removal of the bridge and tapping a plurality of holes into the guitar body, ruining the finish and altering the guitars status as an original piece. Additionally, the tone of the instrument and the structural integrity of the guitar may also be compromised. Therefore, it is desirable and advantageous to provide an apparatus which enables the attachment of a Bigsby® B3 vibrato device or similar type vibrato devices to a guitar without permanent physical modifications while preserving the original guitar string dynamics by allowing perfect spacing and alignment of the guitar strings. It is further advantageous to provide a device that will not impede the original location of the tailpiece mounting holes for instances where additional accessories may be attached utilizing the tailpiece mounting points such as the Vibrato Retrofit String Tension Kit described in U.S. Pat. No. 7,973,226.